Conquest
by Aeris Striffe
Summary: This story takes a few of my favorite characters and throws them into a simalar yet different world. Chapter 2 is now up! Please review!
1. Default Chapter

Jonny Quest in:

Conquest

"Come on Jonny! We need to hurry if we are going to see your father off at the airport," Mrs. Quest called up to her son as she brushed her blonde hair and gave herself another quick check in the mirror.

"Mom, I still don't understand why we can't go with him this time," the teenager sighed as he ran down the stairs and stood in front of his mother.

"We've discussed this Jonathon," she reminded him as she fixed his messy blonde hair, "you can't miss anymore of your lessons. Besides, he'll only be gone for a week this time. Let's go now sweetheart."

They got into the car and drove to the airport. After they drove around the crowded parking lot a few times, Mrs. Quest had to find an alternative place to park. She finally found a vacant spot a few blocks away from their destination. As they got out of the car and began the walk to the airport, Mrs. Quest noticed that the disappointed look on her son's face was still clearly visible.

"I know that you wanted to go Jonny," his mother smiled at him cheerfully, "It just didn't work out this time. How about we go by the computer store you like so much on the way home? I may even let you buy a few things, what do you say?"

"Alright!" Jonny smiled excitedly, "I only need a few more parts for the project I'm working on!" As they continued their walk, Jonny noticed a group of men with questionable appearances following them. He didn't want to alarm his mother, so he took hold of her hand and quickened the pace. Jonny looked behind them to see how close the men were as they turned the corner. As looked in front of him, his gaze was met by another group of men with the same questionable appearance as the ones behind them- except these looked much worse. There were five of them, each with chains, pipes, and knives. Jonny instinctively stepped in front of his mother keeping a tight hold of her hand.

"Well, well, well, look what we've got ourselves here boys," one of the men said mockingly, "A couple of Quest's in the wrong place at the right time. Before we get started with our orders, let's have a little bit of fun with them- shall we?" The men all laughed and began showing their weapons off as they crept closer to them. Jonny turned to pull his mother back the way they had come, but ran into the group of men that had been following them. There were six of them. They smiled as they saw the Quest's panic look and pulled out weapons of their own.

"Take the boy," a voice from behind them ordered.

"NO!" Mrs. Quest yelled as she stepped in front of her son, "Leave him alone!"

"Ya' here that boys? She's wants us to leave him alone!" the men all sneered at her, "And just what are you going to do to stop us, lady?" Jonny again stepped in front of his mother and moved her back. They were against the wall with eleven men crowed around them, leaving no openings to escape through.

Well, Jonny thought to himself, If there isn't an opening, I guess I'll have to make one! He let go of his mother's hand and slugged the closest thug to his right. It set off a chain reaction. Men were piling around him from every angle trying to get a hit in. Jonny managed to keep them back for a time, but there were too many of them. The thugs finally managed to nail him with one of their pipes across his gut. Jonny felt himself fall to his knees even though his mind was telling him to get up. As soon as his knees hit the cold wet concert, a chain whipped him across the back sending him down face first.

"Please stop!" his mother sobbed, "Don't hurt him!"

"Don't worry lady, we ain't gonna kill him," one of the men smiled as he turned and faced her, "We're just gonna keep him from trying to save you!" Two men then grabbed her by her arms and dragged her down into the alley with three men following them.

"MOM!" Jonny yelled as he suddenly jumped up and tried to follow after his mother. However, the six remaining men had other plans for him. They all circled around him and began beating him until he could no longer move. Even after he fell back down they continued the beating. The last thing Jonny heard before he lost consciousness, he'd never forget. It was the horrified scream of his mother.

Jonny woke up a few days later in a hospital bed. His whole body ached and he felt like he couldn't move anything if he wanted to. The prior events suddenly flooded back into his mind.

"MOM!" He yelled. He tried to get up; however, a firm hand held him back down. Jonny looked up to see his father. He looked horrible. He was completely pale and appeared to be sleep depraved.

"Dad-they took Mom- there were these guys- they took Mom- I tried to, but couldn't- they took Mom- where is she- they took her- where is she? Where's Mom?" Jonny tried to explain what happened, but he was still in shock and the only thing that kept racing back to him was his mother. He had to know where she was. He tried to get up yet again, but his father stopped him again.

"You need to rest, son," Dr. Quest's voice was shaky and he couldn't cover the sound of distress in his tone even though he tried.

"What's wrong?" Jonny fought against his father's hold and managed to sit straight up. Everything in his body felt like it was being ripped apart and burned when he sat up, but he didn't care about the pain. "Where's Mom?" He asked again. This time however, there was no trace of panic in his tone, he was cool and level headed. His father avoided his intense gaze and shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Dad! Where is she, you have to tell me what happened!" He tried to keep his voice steady best he could, however his mind was beginning to race through the only reasons why his father would be acting the way he was and they all involved his mother being terribly hurt.

"Jonny..." his father turned and faced him. His voice was quiet and he sounded like he was holding back his emotions best he could, "I don't know the best way to tell you this."

"No," Jonny was beginning to think what his father was about to tell him- but it couldn't be true, it just couldn't. His mother was just hurt, she was in the hospital somewhere- but she'd be fine. She might have to stay a few days- but everything would be fine, that's what she always told him, so it had to be true.

"Jonny, this won't be easy to hear, but I have to tell you-" he stopped as his son pushed his hand off of his. He watched with a painful heart as his one and only son moved his broken body to try and get out of the bed. He swallowed hard, he didn't want to tell him, but he had to. He knew that his son didn't want him to tell him, but he had to.

"Where are you going?" Dr. Quest asked as his son somehow managed to stand and head for the door, "You're in no condition to get out of bed, son."

"I'm going to find Mom," Jonny informed his father, "she's probably worried about me..she was scared, Dad... I heard her scream..." It was too much for Dr. Quest to hear, he couldn't handle this, not now, not by himself. He fell into the chair by his son's bed and held his head in his hands. Jonny took his hand off of the door knob. He looked at his father and knew what had happened.

"She's not in the hospital anymore, is she?" he slowly asked his father. All his father could do was shake his head. "I couldn't- I should have- I was there and I couldn't stop them-"

"It's not your fault!" Dr. Quest's senses took a hold of him as he went over and held his son gently by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes, "It was not your fault, do you hear me? It was not your fault, I don't want you talking like that." Jonny vaguely heard his father's words, his mother's scream echoing in his mind was slowly drowning out everything else.

End of Chapter 1. Please let me know what you think, and don't worry, Chapter 2 will be up very soon)


	2. Chapter 2

1Jonny Quest in:

Conquest

As the months past the pain slowly deadened in Jonny's heart. For the first two months he was completely silent. The only thing he heard was his mother's scream. Then slowly it grew quieter, until he only heard it in his dreams. He couldn't look his father in the eyes, how could it? He was there when his mother was murdered and he couldn't protect her, no matter what his father told him, Jonny knew he was to blame. The only thing he did anymore was work in the lighthouse on his computers and go to his mother's grave. He wouldn't cry or talk at the grave, he simply sat there. He didn't feel like he could ask for his mother's forgiveness, not yet anyway.

After the incident, Dr. Quest began the tedious job of finding a personal bodyguard. The requirements where fairly steep and so far none of the candidates met the bill. First of all, they had to be able to live with them and become a part of the family. That would be the only way a true bond of trust could be formed. Secondly, they had to be experienced, but not so old that they couldn't handle the physical part the job would demand. Thirdly, they would have to be strong and smart, able to notice if their was any possible danger, things like that. And finally and the hardest to reach, was Jonny's approval. Only two men had met the first three requirements, but each time when Dr. Quest asked his son about it, he said he could do a better job himself and left the room. Dr. Quest was about to loose heart when he received a phone call out of the blue from an old friend, Race Banan. They'd been friends for ages and had drifted apart due to their marriages and busy jobs (Race worked for a branch of the CIA, but they would deny it if pressed). In the midst of their conversation Race happened to mention that he was trying to change jobs, something where he'd be able to spend more time with his daughter, yet still be able to use his skills. Dr. Quest immediately asked him if he'd ever considered being a bodyguard. After they talked it over for awhile, Race agreed that he'd take the position.

It was late in the afternoon, maybe even early evening. Jonny stood up, took one more look at his mother's grave then headed home. As he left the graveyard, he heard someone close by; however, when he looked around he couldn't see anyone. Feeling uneasy, he decided a good run home would be good for him. As he took off running he saw a man come out from the woods in quick pursuit. After he had made sure that there was only one, he stopped running and faced his purser. The man was wearing all black with a ski mask to match. He hesitated for a moment then charged Jonny. Jonny was ready for him. He dodged the attackers fist and nailed him in the gut with one of his own. The attacker was not fazed by the punch as he began to quickly throw as many punches as he could at the Quest boy. Jonny blocked all of them, then when his opening came, he slugged the attacker in the face and kicked him down hard on the road. As the attacker fell down unconscious, a small device fell out of his pocket. It was about the size of a wallet calculator with one flashing red light on the top left corner. Jonny quickly picked it up. After examining it, he realized it was a signal for more than likely- backup. He threw the device back down and took off running. He ran into the front door of his house, leaving the front door wide open.

"Dad!" his voice echoed throughout the entire house, which was more like a compound, "Dad, where are you?"

"I'm in the study," his father's distracted voice trailed off. Jonny immediately entered the study to find his father researching like usual.

"Dad, we might have some trouble," Jonny informed him.

"Really, like what," his father wasn't really listening, he was to engrossed with his work.

"On my way home I was chased by this guy dressed in all black," Jonny waited for his father to respond.

"Interesting..." his father clearly wasn't hearing anything he was saying.

"But don't worry, Superman came and beat him down, but then he had to fly to meet Louis for dinner, so Spiderman showed up, tied the guy up, then left. So finally Batman and Robin came and took him to the cops," Jonny sighed.

"What?" Dr. Quest finally looked up from his work, "Oh, Jonny, when did you get in?"

"Dad, I was attacked on my way home. It was only one guy and I took him down easily. Normally I wouldn't bother to tell you, but the thing is, he had some kind of device that he triggered. And I'm almost positive it's for backup," Jonny explained.

"What? Do you mean you often get attacked and simply don't tell me?" Dr. Quest was shocked.

"I think you're missing the point, which would be- bad guys on their way here," Jonny explained.

"Figures something like this would happen and Race won't be here until tomorrow," Dr. Quest sighed as he hit a button under his desk. An alarm sounded as all the doors shut, metal bullet-proof coverings came down over the doors and windows as gun turrets came up all around the guns.

"Who?" Jonny asked.

"Race Banan, he and his daughter will be here tomorrow. He's taken the bodyguard position," Dr. Quest informed his son, "But don't worry, if you don't like him after you've given him a chance, he'll leave. In the meantime, I've already taken the liberty to have their rooms prepared. Race will be in the guest room on the main floor, he requested a room with the fastest access to our security systems, and I put his daughter in the room down the hall from you."

"His daughter is going to be living with us to?" it sounded a bit odd to Jonny.

"Well, only when she's not with her mother. Race and his wife are divorced, so you'd probably better not mention it to her," Dr. Quest instructed.

"Yeah, okay," Jonny scratched his head, "So, what's this girl's name, and how old is she?"

"Her name is Jessica, and she's probably- oh, I'd say around nine or ten by now, maybe," Dr. Quest guessed.

"Great a prissy, whinny, little girl, I can't stand those," Jonny sighed.

"You had better be polite to her all the same, son," his father scolded him.

"Don't worry, I will," Jonny reassured his father, "So, do we have the all clear yet, I want to head out to the lighthouse for a bit."

"Jonny," Dr. Quest sighed, "you're staying inside tonight. If your attacker did indeed call for 'backup', we have no idea when they would be coming. I want you to stay inside until Race gets here, understand?"

"Fine," Jonny sighed as he left the study and went to his room.

"Do you really need to bring all this stuff, Angel?" Race asked his daughter as he looked at the mound of boxes in front of the truck for him to load. He ran his hand over his buzzed silver head as his daughter skipped out of the apartment.

"So, what are the Quest's like exactly Dad?" Jessie asked her father as she picked up the closest box to her and put it in the truck. She gave her father a quick smile which always worked to get him to give in.

"Fine, you can bring all this junk," Race sighed, "The Dr. Quest is not your typical brainy type, he's pretty cool."

"What about Mrs. Quest?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, about that," Race paused, "she was killed a few months back, better not to mention it around the boy."

"Right, how horrible," she blew a stray piece of her auburn hair out of her face as she went to get another box.

"The Quest boy is supposedly very smart as well and athletic," he continued as he grabbed as many boxes as he could and put them in the truck.

"How old do you think he is?" she wondered.

"Uh, I'm not sure, ten or twelve- something like that," Race guessed.

"Great, a middle-schooler," Jessie sighed, "I can't stand them!"

"Well make him the exception. I hear he's very polite and with the recent lose of his mother and all- you should be as nice to him as you can," her father instructed.

"Right, I'll try to ignore the middle-school part," she said as she picked up the last box and loaded it in the truck with no room to spare, "I think that's everything."

"It had better be," Race sighed as he closed the truck, "Let's get going. We should be there in a few hours I'd say."

After spending the better part of the day locked in the house, Jonny finally escaped to the lighthouse. The lighthouse wasn't that far away from the main compound and had it's own security network, so he knew he would be fine. He and his mother had converted the lighthouse into his own computer lab almost two years ago. He was working on the last project his mother and he had invented. It was a virtual system they had named "Quest World". You could do anything in the system from documents to programming software. He was finished with the basics and was just working on fine tuning it. He grabbed the last computer components he needed and paused as he looked at them. They had found them while going through his mother's closet. She had bought them and put them up for him as a present. It was the last thing he'd ever get from her. He held them a moment longer then went to work.

He easily lost time while in the lighthouse and today was no exception. He glanced down at his watch and was shocked to see that he'd been there for almost four hours! The Banan's would arrive any minute and he was still in his work clothes with greasy and grim from working all over him. He wiped his hands off on his pants as he quickly put up his tools and ran back up to the compound. There was no time to sneak back in, so he swallowed hard and went through the front door. Hopefully his father would be working and not notice.

"Where have you been?" his father's voice boomed from the top of the stairs, "I've been searching everywhere for you! The Banan's will be here any minute." He stopped as he saw his son's appearance. "What have you been doing? Run up stairs and change, quickly!" As soon as Jonny ran up the stairs, he heard a car pull up.

"I'm hurrying!" Jonny yelled down the stairs as he ran around grabbing clothes and jumped in and out of the shower faster than he ever had before in his life. He pulled on a black tee-shirt and a pair of loose dark jeans. As he ran out of this room he slipped on his sneakers as he ran down the stairs the front door bell rang.

"I'll get that Dad," Jonny smiled. As he opened the door he was surprised to she a very pretty yong lady standing next to the man he assumed to be Mr. Banan.

"Let me get your bags," was all Jonny could manage to say. Jessie smiled at him and wondered why her father failed to mention the fact that the Quest's had an attractive butler.

"Race, welcome, how was your trip?" Dr. Quest extended his had to his old friend.

"It was great," Race smiled as he took Dr. Quest's hand and firmly shook it, "Doc, this is my Angel, Jessie." Jessie smiled shyly as her father introduced her.

"Very lovely, you look so much like your mother," Dr. Quest smiled, "This is my son, Jonny." Jessie was looking for a skinny little blonde boy to come stumbling around the corner, and was quite surprised to see the 'butler' instead. He extended his had to her father, who eagerly excepted it.

"Well, you're a lot older than I thought you'd be, Jonny. You look to be the same age as Jessie, how old are you?" Race smiled.

"Fifteen, sir," Jonny replied.

"Well," Dr. Quest clapped his hands together, "Jonny, why don't you show Jessie to her room while I show Race around. We'll meet back for dinner."

"Alright," Jonny turned to Jessie, "This way." Jonny took her up a long flight of stairs to the second level of the house. They made so many turns that Jessie was sure she'd never find her room again. Jonny finally stopped and opened a door.

"This will be your room," Jonny said as he waited for her to enter first.

"Wow!" Jessie exclaimed as she walked into her new room. It was easily the largest room she'd ever had in her life. It had a king size canopy bed against the far wall with two huge bay windows on either side. There was a very comfortable reading chair in the corner with a table and a lamp next to it. The floor was wooden and the paint and modeling appeared to have been recently changed for her arrival. There was a computer desk on one wall with book shelves on either side and a vanity on the other wall next to a door leading to her own bathroom with a huge walk in closet.

"Your house is huge! I'm never going to know my way around," Jessie smiled.

"Feel free to change your room around any way you'd prefer," Jonny told her, "I'll go get the rest of your things." He put down the bag that she had brought to the door and went to go get the rest.

"Wait," Jessie called after him, "I'll help, there's a lot of stuff." After several trips they finally had all of her things in her room.

"We'd better meet our dad's for dinner now," Jonny said as he held the door open for Jessie.

"Thanks," she smiled.

"About time you two came down to eat," Race laughed.

"Have a seat and help yourselves to whatever you'd like," Dr. Quest smiled. The dinner conversation revolved mainly around weapons and fighting and several of Race's old inaction stories. Dr. Quest was pleased to see that Race and Jonny seemed to be getting along rather well.

"Ya' know," Race began with a sparkle in his blue eyes, "I have some of those in the back of the truck that needs unloading. If you want to help me unload 'em, I'll show you how they work."

"Sure thing," Jonny said excitedly.

"If you don't mind, I'm interesting in seeing how they work as well," Dr. Quest said as they stood up from the table.

"That's fine," Race said as he headed out of the dinning room and toward the front door. Jessie sighed as all the guys left the room leaving her by herself. Just as she was about to think about finding her way back to her room, Jonny stepped back in the dinning room.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked.

"Oh, I thought it was a guy thing," Jessie informed him.

"Nah," Jonny smiled as he motioned for her to join them, "come on." They found their fathers standing at the back of the truck with all kinds of guns and knives all over the place.

"Now this one is my favorite, I think," Race said as he picked up a long dagger with a curved blade. It had a beautiful Egyptian handle with two blue jewels on either side of the hilt.

"Nice," Jonny said in awe as Race handed him the blade, "Where did you get this one, Mr. Banan?"

"Call me Race, kid, I'm not that old yet," he shook his head as he sighed, "Well, that one there I got in... ya' know, I don't recall where I picked that one up."

"Interesting," Dr. Quest said as he held the blade, "I believe that's an Egyptian inscription on the handle. And you say you can't recall where you 'picked it up'?"

"Dad, isn't that the sword that Mom gave you on one of your anniversaries or something like that?" Jessie reminded him.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Angel. Now I remember, she gave it to me a few years back, said that she wanted me to hang on to it."

"Do you know what the inscriptions say?" Dr. Quest asked.

"Nope, no clue," Race sighed, "Estella probably knows."

"Would you mind if I did some research on this?" Dr. Quest wondered.

"Knock yourself out, Doc," Race smiled, "Just remember to give it back." Race grabbed the remaining boxes, "Well, it's getting kind of late."

"I think you two should head up to bed now," Dr. Quest turned to Jonny and Jessie.

"Sure," Jonny complied with his father's instructions, "Good night then."

"Night Dad," Jessie smiled as she gave her father a kiss on the cheek.

"Night Angel, sleep well," Race smiled as Jonny led Jessie back to the house and to her room- she still couldn't remember how to find it.

"Thanks," Jessie smiled as Jonny stopped outside of her room, "good night."

"See you in the morning," Jonny smiled as he went to his own room.

"So Doc," Race began, "what school is Jonny enrolled in?"

"He's actually been home schooled his entire life," Dr. Quest explained, "It works out best with our schedules so he can come with me while I travel. You should consider home schooling Jessie as well. I have the best material and I am well qualified to teach them."

"Home schoolin' huh," Race thought for a minute, "Sounds all right to me. I'll just have to get the 'okay' from the ex."

"Good," Dr. Quested yawned, "well, we'll be leaving for London in two months. So, you might want to get it worked out before we go."

"I'll do it in the morning, I'm beat," Race stretched.

"Breakfast is at 6:45," Dr. Quest informed him, "I'll see you then."

The next morning at 6:45, Race, Dr. Quest and Jonny were down and ready for breakfast while Jessie was still fast asleep. After waiting a few minutes the food was starting to get cold and they were growing rather hungry.

"Where is Jessie?" Dr. Quest asked Jonny.

"I guess she's still asleep, Dad," Jonny assumed.

"Didn't you tell her that breakfast is at 6:45?" he asked.

"Um... I think I may have failed to mention that," Jonny confessed.

"Well, that's all right," Dr. Quest sighed, "she's probably tired from the move. We'll let her sleep in today, but I'd like for her to eat with us tomorrow."

"She'll be up around 10:00-11:00," Race estimated, "So what's the game plan for today, Doc." Race eagerly helped his plate to a few pancakes, eggs and sausage.

"Have some of the fruit," Dr. Quest offered him, "I have meetings that I have to attend all day. The first one is at 9:00, we should be back in time for dinner, I think."

"You forgot didn't you," Jonny sighed.

"Forgotten what?" he had no idea what his son was referring to.

"The carnival in town," Jonny reminded him, "you said that we could go, and today is the last day."

"Oh, yes, the carnival," Dr. Quest thought for a moment, "I'm very sorry, son, but I simply can't reschedule these meetings."

"It's all right, I understand," Jonny said as he picked up his empty plate and took it into the kitchen.

"I feel badly," Dr. Quest admitted to Race.

"Ah, it's okay, he'll get over it," Race assured him.

"It's just that since Debra was killed," he paused for a moment, it was still so hard to even mention, "Jonny really hasn't wanted to do much with me at all. He's pretty much isolated himself from everything and everyone. He didn't speak at all for the first two months. His mother was always the one that related to him best. And I know that he says he doesn't, but he blames himself for what happened."

"It's tough," Race agreed, "just give it some more time." Race and Dr. Quest left the house around 8:00 to get to his meeting in time to set up. Jonny decided to hang around in the house until Jessie woke up, to let her know what was going on- and to remind her to be at breakfast tomorrow.

Jessie finally decided to get out of bed around 10:00. She took a nice long shower, got dressed and decided to try and find her way down stairs. After wandering around for about ten minutes, she found a stair way leading down; however, it wasn't the main stairs that she'd been using. She decided that these stairs were better than no stairs at all and went down. They took her to some kind of library with what looked like hundreds of book cases filled with thousands of books. In the center of the room was a single desk with a computer and a lamp. After looking around, she finally spotted the door and exited the library. As she started walking down a hall way she heard a noise come from behind a closed door. It sounded like something had fallen over. Curious, she opened the door. It was a very large laundry room. She notice a knocked over detergent box and went to pick it back up. As she bent down to pick it up she heard a dog growl from behind her. She slowly turned around to see a white and black pit bull snarling at her.

"Nice doggie," she slowly backed away from the dog into the back of the room. The more she tried to calm the dog down, the more it growled and snarled. It was starting to slowly move closer to her, baring its teeth. Just when she was about to grab something to hit the dog with, the door leading to the outside opened and Jonny walked inside. She was next to the door so that when it opened the door blocked her view from him. The dog however stopped coming closer to her.

"Bandit, what are you doing in here?" Jonny asked the dog as he went to pick him up, "What are you growling at?" As he picked up his dog he turned to see Jessie petrified in the corner next to the door.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did he scare you?" he asked as he helped her up.

"Uh, yeah, he kind of did," Jessie sighed, "I didn't know you had a dog."

"This is Bandit," Jonny introduced her, "I'm really sorry he scared you."

"Is he harmless?" Jessie hoped.

"You'd like for me to say 'yes', wouldn't you," Jonny smiled, "I'm afraid he's attacked his fair share of strangers, but once he sees that you're all right, he'll leave you alone- or lick you to death."

"Right," Jessie smiled nervously as she edged away from the dog and walked out of the laundry room.

"You must be hungry," Jonny said as he shut Bandit back in the room, "I'll leave him in there for now."

"I'm starving," Jessie admitted, "I was actually trying to find the kitchen, but I came down these stairs that led to a library."

"I know the ones," Jonny smiled, "the kitchen's this way." He took her back around a few different hallways until they were somehow in the kitchen.

"Breakfast is usually at 6:45 every morning," Jonny told her as he took out some eggs and bacon, "but I can make you something. What would you like? I can make pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, whatever you'd like."

"Bacon and eggs sounds great, if you don't mind," Jessie decided.

"No problem," Jonny replied as he began preparing her food, "Oh, and our Dad's will be gone until dinner they said. My Dad has meetings all day and I'm guessing that they'll run later than they think and they probably won't be back until late tonight. Here you go." He gave her a huge plate full of scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Thanks, looks great," Jessie eyed the food hungrily, "So what are you going to do all day?"

"I was going to do this thing," Jonny sighed as he remembered his broken plans with his father, "but it fell through. So I'll be in my computer lab."

"Ah, so you think you're good with computers," Jessie said teasingly.

"I never said that," he replied modestly.

"Oh really, then why do you have a computer lab if you don't think you're any good?" Jessie said sarcastically, "What is it you do in this 'computer lab' of yours?"

"I design software mainly," Jonny told her, "I build some hardware too. Right now I'm working on a completely new hardware system that uses my own software, but can of course access any kind of software and adapt it. It's a virtual system. It's in its prototype form right now. It can play some games and stuff like that, I'm just working out a few things before it'll be fully up and running." Jessie stared at him oddly for a moment, then cracked a smile.

"You almost had me there for a second," she laughed, "That was pretty good!"

"Well, I made a map of the places you might need to get to in the compound," Jonny said as he handed her the map, "I'm going to be in the lighthouse, and Bandit will be with me- so you don't have to worry about him."

"Right, okay," Jessie smiled, "thanks for the map." Jonny nodded then left the room. Jessie looked around her empty surroundings and sighed. She had nothing to do and no one to do it with. She pulled out her map and decided she could at least organize her room- all day. A few hours later she was hungry again. Since she had made a good amount of progress with her room she decided she'd follow her map to the kitchen and find something to eat. With her trusty map it didn't take her very long to find the kitchen at all. When she got there the back door in the kitchen leading outside opened and Jonny walked in.

"You hungry too?" she smiled.

"Yeah, my Dad has me eating on a very timely schedule," he laughed. Jessie noticed that he had what looked like grease on him. He walked over to the sink and began scrubbing his hands.

"Where you working on a car?" she asked because that's what he looked like he had been doing.

"No," he laughed, "I was in the lighthouse."

"Right," she replied skeptically, "So, can we go somewhere for lunch? I'm dying to get out of here and have a look around town." She was interesting in trying to figure out Jonny. He was always very polite and considerate of her, but he seemed to keep himself distant. She thought that if she could go somewhere with him, he have to open up more- that was the plan anyway.

"Well," Jonny thought for a moment, "my Dad probably wouldn't want us to go out by ourselves- he's strange about things like that. There's cameras and stuff set up all through the compound- don't worry there aren't any in any bedrooms or bathrooms. Anyway, he'd know if we left. I'm sure he has your dad checking them remotely while they're out."

"Man, that sucks!" Jessie sighed disappointedly.

"But," Jonny's blue eyes sparkled with excitement, "all that hasn't stopped me before." Jessie perked up by the suggestion of sneaking out.

"Give me ten minutes and then we'll be good to go," he smiled at her as he ran out of the kitchen and up stairs.

"What on earth?" Jessie wondered as she followed the map up to her room to get ready for the ten minute departure time. Ten minutes later she met Jonny downstairs in the front hall.

"Alright," he beamed, "let's go."

"Um... don't we have to sneak out or something?" she wondered.

"Got it all taken care of," he assured her, "Come on, I'm starving."

"Okay, so are you driving?" she asked as they headed out the door.

"Nope, I'm not old enough to have my licence yet," he told her, "the town's not very far, I always walk, or take a bike. Which would you rather?"

"Walking's fine, and that way we don't have to worry about parking our bikes and stuff," she decided.

"I'll take you a short cut then, it's faster than following the road," he then headed off the road and down toward the wooded area of the compound.

"I'm glad I wore my tennis shoes!" Jessie said with a heavy breath. The walk to the town was more like a hike, and the town was more like a small city. As she looked around she noticed that they were signs up for a carnival and wondered if it was still in town.

"So what do you want to eat?" Jonny asked, "There are some really good places down here, my favorite being the pizza parol. But we can go wherever you'd like."

"Pizza sounds great," Jessie replied, "Hey, is this carnival still in town?"

"Uh, yeah," Jonny's tone changed a bit as he answered her, "today is the last day though."

"Great!" Jessie exclaimed happily, "then we can still go! I love carnivals! I use to go to them all the time with my mom."

"Yeah, me too," Jonny smiled but his eyes were saddened, "let's go after we eat. The pizza place is right at this corner."

Race drove Dr. Quest to yet another meeting. So far he had taken him to three and it was only noon. He had no idea what any of the meetings were about and why there had to be so many in one day. He sighed as he adjusted his mirror again. He'd rather be chasing down bad guys, shooting something, or even being shot at would be better.

"So Doc," Race sighed, "what are all these meetings about?"

"Oh, well it's really rather exciting," Dr. Quest was glad that he asked because talking about his inventions and explaining them was one of his favorite things to do, "You see, I'm in the process of developing a new kind of scanner."

"A scanner, huh, sounds...er... interesting," Race tried to sound fasinated best he could, but failed miserable.

"Ha ha," Dr. Quest chuckled by his friends reaction, "I know, it doesn't sound like much at first. But this scanner can be used to detected exactly what is in cargo of any kind. It's a rather large machine, but it networks to satelites and can be used all around the world at any given minute. And it only takes a few seconds to get the read out as to the contents of the cargo."

"Huh, now that is more impressive," Race agreed, "So with this thing, it'll be near impossible to smuggle anything into a country."

"Exactly," the doctor smiled that his friend understood the use of his device, "Exciting, isn't it?"

"Exciting isn't the word I'd use, Doc," Race said, "Exciting is going undercover to try to save the world, while everyone's trying to kill you. This is what I would call an interesting theory."

"Soon to be fact, if everything goes according to plan," Dr. Quest smiled, "I just have to go to London to get the approval to connect it into the satilight network, then make a few modifications and it will be up and running."

"Do you hear something?" Race looked around the car.

"No, why?" Dr. Quest asked.

"Hold on," Race pulled over the car and took apart the roof light, "Just what I thought." He pulled out a small device.

"What is it?" Dr. Quest wondered.

"Someone bugged the car," Race told him, "I scanned it before we left the compound, so it must have been bugged during one of the meetings."

"But why?" Dr. Quest asked as he looked at the small device.

"Who ever it was wants to learn more about your little scanner," Race frowned, "I'm sure there's a lot of people that would be hurting if this was to be launched. Which makes it pretty hard to find out exactly who's behind this, yet. But don't worry, I'm on it. I'm going to drop you off at this next meeting and pick you up when it's over, I have some meetings of my own to attend."


End file.
